chapter 21 most unexpected!

soon there was real pandemonium in the old house! the sleepers in the rooms on the top landingawoke suddenly and found their doors locked, and began to bang on them and shout. the threechildren in the locked room on the ground floor shouted and banged too - and timmy nearly wentmad!

only the men in the room next to the children were silent. they were terrified at timmy's growlingand snarling. they would have liked to lock themselves in, but the key was on the other side of thedoor - and they certainly didn't dare to open it to get the key!

soon the children quietened down. dick sat on a chair, exhausted. 'that cat! that wretched,prowling, sly old cat! gosh, i stepped on it and it scratched me to the bone - to say nothing ofpitching me headlong down the stairs and making me wrench my ankle!'

'we so nearly managed to escape!' groaned julian.

'i can't think what will happen now!' said george. 'timmy's out there and can't get in to us, and wecan't possibly get out to him because the door's locked - and those men won't dare to set a footoutside their door while tim's there!'

'and we've locked the people into their rooms upstairs!' said julian. 'well, it's certain that nobody canget out of their rooms to help anyone else - so it looks as if we'll all be here till doomsday!'

it certainly did seem a very poor look-out! the only people who were not behind locked doors werethe two men, whoever they were - and they simply dared not put a foot outside their room.

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timmy roamed about, occasionally whimpering and scratching outside the children's door, but moreoften growling outside the next door, sometimes flinging his heavy body against it as if he wouldbreak it down.

'i bet the men are shaking with fright,' said dick. 'they won't even dare to try and get out of awindow in case they meet timmy outside somewhere!'

'serve them right,' said george. 'gosh, i'm glad you came! wasn't i an absolute ass to take sallydown to the kennel that night?'

'you were,' said julian, 'i agree wholeheartedly. the men were waiting for a chance to get berta, ofcourse, and they saw you, complete with berta's dog, and thought you were the girl they wanted!'

'yes. they flung something all over my head so that i couldn't make a sound,' said george. 'i foughtlike anything, and my dressing-gown girdle must have slipped off - did you find it?'

'yes,' said dick. 'we were jolly glad to find a few other things too - the comb - the hanky - the sweet- and of course the note!'

'they carried me quite a way to somewhere in the wood,' said george. 'then they plonked me downat the back of the car. but they had to turn it and it was difficult - and i had the bright thought ofthrowing out all the things in my dressing-gown pocket just in case you came along and saw them.'

'what about that note - with the word gringo on?' asked julian. 'that was a terrific help. we wouldn'tbe here tonight if it hadn't been for that.'

'well, i heard one of the men call the other gringo,' said george. 'and it was such an unusual name ithought i'd scribble it on a bit of paper and throw that out too - it was just on chance i did it.'

'a jolly good chance!' said dick. 'good thing you had a notebook and pencil with you!'

'i hadn't,' said george. 'but one of the men had left his coat in the back of the car and there was anotebook with a pencil in the breast-pocket. i just used that!'

'jolly good!' said julian.

'well, they whizzed me off in the car to some fairground or other,' said george. 'i heard theroundabout music next day. there was a horrid old witch-like woman in the caravan; she didn't seemat all pleased to see me. i had to sleep in a chair that night, and i got so wild that i yelled and shoutedand threw things about and smashed quite a lot of cups and saucers. i enjoyed that.'

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the boys couldn't help laughing. 'yes - i bet you did,' said dick. 'they had to move the caravan awayfrom the fair itself, because they were afraid people would hear you. in fact, i expect that's whygringo decided to hide you here!'

'yes. i suddenly felt a jolt, and found the caravan we were in was being towed away!' said george. 'iwas awfully surprised. i waved at the windows and shouted as we drove through the streets, butnobody seemed to notice anything wrong - in fact some people waved back to me!

then we swung in through some gates, and came here - and, as i told you, they put me up herebecause i made such a nuisance of myself!'

'did you tell them you weren't berta?' asked dick.

'no,' said george. 'of course not. for two reasons - i knew there would be no fear of berta's fathergiving those secrets away, because he'd be told by you that i had been kidnapped, not his preciousberta. so he'd hang on to them. and also i thought berta would be safe, so long as i didn't tell themen they'd got the wrong person.'

'you're a good kid, george,' said julian, and slapped her gently on the back. 'a - very - good -kid. i'm jolly proud of you. there's nobody like our george!'

'don't be a fathead,' said george, but she was very pleased all the same.

'well, there's no more to tell,' she said, 'except that the cistern room was most frightfully draughty,and i had to wrap my head up as well as my body when i lay down. and the cistern made awfulnoises - sort of rude noises, that made me want to say 'i beg your pardon!' all the time! of course iknew you'd rescue me, so i wasn't awfully worried!'

'and we haven't rescued you!' said julian. 'all we've done is to get ourselves locked up as well asyou!'

'tell me how you found out i was here,' said george. so the boys told her everything and shelistened, thrilled.

'so berta went to stay with jo!' she said. 'i bet jo didn't like that.

'she didn't,' said julian. 'but she's been quite a help. i only wish she was here now, and could do oneof her ivy-climbing stunts, or something!'

'i say - timmy's very quiet all of a sudden!' said george, listening. 'what's happened?'

they listened. timmy was not barking or whimpering. there was no sound of him at all. what washappening? george's heart sank - perhaps those men had managed to do something to him?

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but suddenly they heard him again, whimpering - but whimpering gladly and excitedly. and then afamiliar voice came to their ears.

'dick! julian! where are you?'

'gosh - it's jo!' said dick, astounded. he limped to the door. 'we're in here, jo. unlock the door!'

jo unlocked it and looked in, grinning. timmy tore in like a whirlwind and flung himself on george,almost knocking her over. dick limped out of the room immediately. jo rushed in, much toeveryone's astonishment. then he returned, looking rather pleased with himself.

'let's go while the going's good,' he said.

'yes - but be careful, those men will be out, now that timmy isn't there to guard them!' cried julian,suddenly realising that the two angry fellows could easily escape while timmy was in with them -and might lock the door on the lot of them, timmy too!

'it's all right - there's no desperate hurry!' said dick. 'i thought of that. i slipped out and locked theirdoor on them, as soon as jo rushed in to us. and there they can stay till the police arrive in themorning. they can then collect the whole lot - the men upstairs too.'

'and i'm sure the police will be quite pleased to search the house and the cellars,' said julian.

'there will be plenty of stuff here that they will be interested in! well, let's go at once.'

they called a cheery good-bye to the two men. 'we're off!' shouted dick. 'you'd better look out forthe dog in case he gets you!' they all went down the hall, dick hobbling, for his ankle was stillpainful.

'we might as well leave in style,' said julian, and unbolted and unlocked the front door. 'also itwould be as well to leave this door open for the police to come in by - i don't expect they will want tocome in through the coal-hole! it was a good idea of yours to let the men think we were leaving timbehind to guard them, dick - they won't dare even to climb out of the windows in case he's waitingfor them!'

'we've left a good many lights on,' said george, looking back. 'never mind - we're not paying thebill! come on, timmy, out into the dark, dark night!'

they went down the front steps and into the dark drive. everyone felt safe with timmy runningahead.

'jo - exactly how did you get here?' said dick, suddenly. 'you were forbidden to come.'

'i know,' said jo. 'well, i just took anne's bike and followed you, that's all. and i walked in throughthe front gates when you'd left them open, of course. that was easy.'

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'gosh - i kept feeling there was someone behind me!' said dick. 'and there was - it was you, youlittle horror! no wonder timmy didn't bother to bark or growl.'

'yes, it was me,' said jo. 'and i followed you round and round the house, while you were trying to getin - and i thought you never would see that coal-hole - so i took the lid off and put it on the ground,hoping you'd see it then. and you did!'

'so you did that!' said dick. 'i must say i was astonished to see it. i knew we must have passed itbefore. so that was you too! you want spanking, you disobedient, cheeky little wretch!'

jo laughed. 'i couldn't bear you to go off without me,' she said. 'it's a good thing i did come! i waitedand waited inside that coal-hole for you to come back with george - and when you didn't, i left thecoal-hole and got into the house. and timmy heard me and came running down the stairs. he nearlyknocked me over, he was that pleased!'

'here are the gates at last,' said george. 'what are we going to do about bikes? there isn't one for me.'

'jo can stand behind on my step and hold on to my shoulder,' said julian. 'you take anne's bike,george. we'll leave these gates open. the police ought to be pleased with us for saving them somuch trouble!'

off they went down the steep hill, timmy running behind, his tail wagging happily. he had gotgeorge back again. all was well again in his doggy world!